Sleep is Death - 2 Player Storytelling Game

Saw an interview with the desinger Jason Rohrer in Edge and after looking at the site I'm excited to try it Friday when it launches. It's a two player (only) narrative "game" a bit like a graphical D&D without any rules, as a preview pointed out.

1 player is the narrator setting up the scene and controlling characters and objects, the other plays in the world typing in text commands and clicking. Once you've finished your story the game saves out a "book" of the story you created. This does a far better job of explaining it that I will.

Wow, that sounds like it has crazy potential to build up a loyal following. As obvious a thing as it is to say, I'd be slightly worried about the demands placed on player 2, though. Can't shake the feeling that you'd need to be very good to make it work.

Looks interesting (the slideshow was adorable).

But it seems there's a lot of pressure on both players to not muck about in order to actually get anything out of it. And a lot of trust on the part of the main player that the "creator" player has anything good planned.

It's definitely true there's pressure on the narrator, but with graphical resources provided (and saved every time you play with someone who uses something new) I'm not sure it's that different to pressure a GM has in a tabletop RPG.

It'll be interesting to see how the balance between planning and improvisation turns out. The previews I read seemed more based on improvisation after the narrator lays out a setting.

You get 30 seconds each "turn" to come up with your reply/action so guess maybe it's something that you'll need to get used to.

I've ordered a copy so I'll be up for giving it a bash if anyone's awake when I am :)

Cool idea for a competition to see what the game can do.

I'd be interested to see what "flipbooks" are produced out of this, as an observer. Playing it is a different matter, again because of the pressure to perform.

Not had a chance to play my copy yet, though I've watched through the tutorials and had a brief poke about in the editor.

Rohrer posted up a great contribution from a guy in the industry. Some pretty assets people can download and use, plus a great story the guy played out for Rohrer.

He's also put up some of the competition entries here

Damn, that's awesome if it was an actual play-through of the game.

Once you've seen how the system works it's definitely possible it was a real run through.You can prepare all the scenes in advance and just drag and drop them in, though it might take a bit of practice to get it smooth in 30 seconds.

Yeah, a very charming (and slightly chilling!) story. I wonder if there was any cooperation between player 1 and player 2 to make it go smoothly, or if player 1 really went in totally blind.

Still to busy to play my copy, but anyone else who is interested can get one for $1.79 + . As Rohrer is doing a pay what you like thing according to RPS